Escape
by Gamma Orionis
Summary: Draco has the chance, at last, to free Luna from the Manor.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: Written for Rosa Clearwater's Staying Up All Night Competition and also an idea my good friend Ben, ThisLife103.7 gave me. My thanks to you, Ben.

Sequel-ish to "I'm Sorry" and "Because I Love You". Enjoy.

)O(

_Stay awake tonight_, Draco had whispered to Luna, when he brought her dinner. He had given no other instruction, no explanation as to _why_ she was to stay awake, only that she had to stay up and wait for him. Luna had questioned, but Draco said nothing. So she sat in the corner of her basement room, and waited.

)O(

Draco waited until after sunset. He waited until the Manor was quiet, everyone asleep. Then he crept from his bedroom, down to the basement where Luna was.

She was sitting on the floor, her face even more serene and beatific than usual. If da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, any great artist had seen her, Draco was sure that they would want to dedicate their lives to transferring the expression on her face onto canvas. Her eyes were just barely shut, and she appeared to be on the very edge of sleep.

"Wake up, Luna," he whispered, shaking her.

Her eyes flew open, and she shook her head a little. "I wasn't asleep."

He smiled, though it felt forced. "It's all right."

"Why did you want me to stay awake all night?" Luna asked, rubbing at the corners of her eyes.

Draco's heart skipped a beat. "I'm here to get you out."

"What?"

"Here." He shoved one of his aunt's dresses at her. "Put that on. I'm getting you out of this place. Tonight."

"But what about Lord Vol-"

Draco clapped his hand over Luna's mouth. "_Don't say his name!_"

She shook her head, and he released her.

"I'm sorry," she said. "You-know-who. What about him? Won't he be angry that you let me escape? Won't he try to kill you?"

"Probably," Draco said. "But if this goes right, he won't ever get the chance."

"Pardon?"

"I'm going to go with you," he told her. "I'm going to get us both out of here, and we'll go into hiding."

Luna bit her lip. "Aren't you worried he'll find us?"

"Yes."

Draco couldn't put into words how afraid he was that the Dark Lord would find them. While she was here, Luna was in no immediate danger, but if he helped her escape, and they were caught, neither of them would be shown any mercy. If this went wrong, it would be his fault if Luna died because he tried to play the hero and save her-

"Well, don't," she said. "I'm sure you-know-who won't find out too soon."

"What?"

Luna took Bellatrix's dress from Draco and held it up in front of her. "That would mean telling him that we escaped. And I don't think that anyone here is going to be too eager to do that. We'll have a decent head start. And with any luck, the war will be over before you-know-who finds us."

"The war's never going to end," Draco said dully. "Not in our lifetime, anyway."

"Oh, you're wrong." Luna's tone was matter-of-fact. "Harry Potter's going to defeat you-know-who."

Draco felt a surge of anger. _Potter, Potter, always bloody Potter!_ Of course, Luna was Potter's friend first, long before she was anything to Draco. Of course, she would believe that he was the second bloody coming. Draco knew better. "The Dark Lord will kill Harry Potter!"

Luna seemed surprised at Draco's vehemence. "But-"

"No buts, Luna," he said shortly. "Just put on the dress. We can argue about Potter later."

Luna nodded, and slipped the heavy black gown over the rather ragged dress she was already wearing. It fit surprisingly well, just a little long in the skirt and loose about the shoulders. Draco nodded, and handed her a cloak, which she pulled on, tugging the hood down so it shielded her face. Draco tucked the last few strands of blonde hair out of sight, trying to ignore the wave of tenderness he felt towards her. There would be plenty of time for demonstrating that once they got out. At least, he hoped there would be.

"Right," he said, pulling up the hood of his own cloak. With any luck, anyone watching would mistake Luna for Bellatrix, and they wouldn't be questioned. "Let's go."

He opened the door and ushered Luna through, pausing at the bottom of the stairs to appraise her.

"Stand up straight," he directed. "Make yourself look a little taller."

Luna straightened her back, though she kept her head tilted down to shadow her face. Draco was feeling uncomfortably warm, probably with nerves, as he led Luna up the stairs and out into the foyer of Malfoy Manor. His hand was clenched around the handle of his wand, the only thing he felt he could get away with bringing – he didn't want to look like they were doing anything but going out for a walk. Luna, a few steps behind him, was unarmed, and Draco could only hope that Bellatrix's reputation was enough to stop anyone who might see them from attacking.

They were almost at the door when they were stopped.

"Where do you think you're going, Draco?"

Their way was blocked, and Draco stared, horrified, at his aunt.

"Aunt Bella," he began, but his mouth was dry. Bellatrix was the one person against whom Luna's disguise would be useless. Why hadn't he _thought_ of that?

"Taking our prisoner for a little walk?" Bellatrix grabbed the hood of Luna's cloak and pulled it back, revealing the girl's pale, now quite frightened face. "I don't recall giving you leave to do that."

Draco glanced at Luna, who was staring at Bellatrix with naked fear in her eyes. He swallowed, knowing that what he was doing was tantamount to signing his own death warrant.

"Let us through," he said, drawing his wand and pointing it at Bellatrix.

She looked shocked, stunned that her own nephew would think to fight her. "Have you lost your mind, Draco?"

"Let us through, or I swear I'll kill you," Draco said in a low voice. He didn't know whether he meant it, but if Bellatrix was going to stop him and Luna from leaving, he would be quite willing to fight her, though he knew the odds were wildly against him.

"What do you think you're doing, boy?" she asked, drawing her own wand. "Are you willing to risk your life, your service to the Dark Lord, _everything_, just to take Lovegood out for a walk?"

"I'm not letting you keep her here," Draco told his aunt. "I'm taking her, and there's nothing you can do to stop me. Except kill me."

Bellatrix hissed through her teeth, and her eyes glinted with fury. "Why would you do that, Draco? Does family honour mean nothing to you? What do you think will become of your mother when she finds out her own son has turned traitor? What of your father? Do you think the Dark Lord will let this go? What of _me_?"

"So fight," Draco told her. "Fight me, if you're so worried about your honour." He was gripping his wand so tightly that his knuckles were white. "I'm not going to stand around and let you all keep an innocent girl prisoner. She hasn't done anything wrong."

Bellatrix raised her wand to point at Draco's chest, but she seemed reluctant to cast the first spell. "Why?"

"Because I love her," Draco said, and liked the way it sounded. It was concrete. The expression on Bellatrix's face was enough to show him that what he said had meaning. She blanched, and Draco felt pride well in his chest, enough to say it again. "Because I love her."

Bellatrix seemed frozen in place. She stared at Draco, then very slowly turned to look to Luna.

"You love her, do you?" she asked.

"Yes." Draco was ready for an attack at any moment, but it didn't come. Bellatrix lowered her wand, and stepped past him, so she was face-to-face with Luna.

"Let me look at you, girl," she said, glaring critically at Luna, who met her gaze with open eyes. "Were both your parents magic?"

"Yes," Luna said softly.

"And your grandparents?"

"My father's parents were both magic, my mother was half-blood."

"Have you any part in your father's," Bellatrix's face twisted with disgust, "_treasonous_ publication?"

"None, ma'am."

Bellatrix considered the girl for a long time. Then she leaned in so their noses were almost touching.

"And do you love Draco?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Luna, and Draco could have sworn that, right at that moment, he could have fought Bellatrix and won, fought the Dark Lord and won even. Those two words inspired that much pride in him.

Bellatrix grabbed Luna's chin, tilted her head back so the girl was looking up at her.

"I know something of irrational love," Bellatrix said. "Which this clearly is. But the girl's blood is pure enough, and if she has no part in her father's work, well, we are not all like our parents. But mark my words, girl," Her hand tightened, long fingernails digging into the pale skin of Luna's jaw. "If you ever – _ever_ – do _anything_ to hurt Draco…"

Luna swallowed.

"If you break his heart…"

Draco felt like he should protest, but he didn't know what he should say.

"If you are _anything_ less than faithful, _anything_ less than the perfect wife to him-"

"_Wife_?" asked Draco, but neither of the women paid him any attention.

"I swear I'll make your life Hell," Bellatrix hissed. "If you're lucky I'll kill you fast and have done with it. But more likely it'll drag on for years. A living Hell, I promise you."

"Yes, ma'am," Luna said shakily.

Bellatrix released her.

"You two have until dawn before I notify the Dark Lord," she said. "And then the hunt will be on." She fingered her wand, and smirked. "And if I'm the one to find you two, the traitor and the escapee, remember that I'll be there as a Death Eater, not as your aunt."

Draco could scarcely believe it. Was his aunt actually allowing them to go? Giving them some sort of fighting chance for escape?"

"There are four hours until sunrise," Bellatrix said. "I suggest you two hurry."

Draco didn't need telling twice. He grabbed Luna's wrist and bolted, the two of them stumbling down the path that lead to the gates of Malfoy Manor, out into the moors beyond them.

"We should go far away," Luna said, breathless from running. "Before she changes her mind."

"Yes," said Draco. "Just wait."

He slammed the gates behind them, then wrapped his arms around Luna and kissed her.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: This chapter written for Luck o' the Irish Seamione's Katy Perry Challenge and obsessivegirl73's Drunk Luna Challenge on the HPFC forum

)O(

"They'll never find us here," Draco said, pulling Luna into the crowded pub. "They'll expect us to go underground and hide."

"Like Harry," Luna said absently, as Draco led her over to a table near the edge of the pub.

Draco felt a flash of annoyance. It irked him that Harry was such a close friend to Luna. He still liked to think of Harry as "the bad guy" – the one who had made Draco's school career a misery. The fact that he, Draco, had responded in kind was something he chose not to dwell on.

"No," he said with forced patience. "We're not like Harry. Because Harry's running like a scared little boy, and we're going to wait it out. Do you want a drink?"

Luna settled at the table, pulling back the hood of her cloak and looking around the pub with mild interest. "Yes, a drink would be nice."

Draco pulled the hood back over her head. "Keep your face hidden! Someone might recognize you!" Bellatrix had said she would give him and Luna until dawn before she sent out the alert that they had made a run for it, but it was better not to draw attention to themselves.

Luna nodded, and left the hood up this time, shadowing her face. Draco glanced around the pub, then hurried up to the bar to get drinks, and arrange rooms. He had thought ahead long enough to bring along a pouch of change, and had purposefully chosen the cheapest wizarding inn he knew of so that the money would go as far as possible, but he was uncomfortably aware that if they ran out of money, he would have no way of retrieving more from his vault.

"What'll it be, then?" asked the barman, a wiry man who squinted at Draco rather suspiciously.

"Two of… whatever the cheapest alcoholic drink you have is," Draco said. God knows, they'd need the alcohol. "And I'd like to arrange a room as well. One with two beds."

"Ain't got empty rooms with two beds," said the barman, reaching under the counter to pull up two dusty bottles.

"What? Why not?"

"All full up, innit?"

Draco started to protest in the usual way, _do you know who I am?_, but stopped himself. No, the barman did not know who he was. That was the point. No one was to know who he was.

"Right," he said. "Do you have two rooms, then?"

"No. Only got one room left. Room six. You want it or not?"

"Fine, fine." He'd work out sleeping arrangements somehow. "How much for the room and the two drinks?"

"Ten galleons all together," the barman said. "And six more galleons every night you stay."

Draco dropped the money on the counter, and made his way back to Luna, clutching the two bottles.

"Right," he said. "Well, the good news is that I have alcohol. Here." He pulled the cork from Luna's bottle and handed it to her. "We're going to need it."

Luna took a sip, looking rather curious, and pleased when she tasted it.

"Yeah, well," Draco said, pulling the cork from his own bottle and taking a swig, "like I said, that's the good news. The bad news is that there's only one bed in this whole place. Either one of us sleeps on the floor, or we have to find another inn. And seeing as, by my calculations, we have only…" he checked his watch, "two and a half hours before the sun rises and Bellatrix sends out the alert, I'm going to suggest that we decide who's going to sleep on the floor."

"This is good," Luna commented, swallowing another mouthful of alcohol. "What is it?"

"Were you listening to anything I said?"

Luna pondered for a moment, then nodded. "One bed. I don't see why one of us has to sleep on the floor. Couldn't we share the bed?" She tipped the bottle back and downed about half its contents.

"No," Draco said firmly. "And if you don't slow down, you're going to get drunk."

Luna took another sip. "Is that a problem?"

"Yeah, it's a little harder to hide from snatchers when you're drunk off your feet, Luna."

She shrugged. "Are you going to drink yours?"

Draco rolled his eyes and took a long drink from his bottle. He kept his eyes peeled for anyone who might notice them, taking periodic sips from his bottle, and paying very little attention to Luna until he heard a soft hiccough.

He turned, and saw that Luna's bottle was completely empty, and she was grinning widely at Draco from under the hood of her cloak. Her eyes looked glazed.

"Draco?" she said, her voice more than a little slurred. Draco didn't like this at all. Luna was crazy to begin with, and adding alcohol to the mix seemed like a horrible, horrible idea. "I wanted to thank you for saving me."

"It was the right thing to do," he said shortly, pulling the bottle out of her hands. Luna slid her chair around the table so she was sitting next to Draco, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"It's exciting," she giggled, squeezing him so tight he worried she would cut off his breath. "We're like partners in crime. Hiding from the evil clutches of Lord Vol–"

Draco slapped his hand over her mouth. "You're drunk. We're going upstairs." He finished off his bottle, then stood. Luna clung to him, and he felt like a complete idiot, with this girl literally hanging on to his neck. He had a sudden, completely insane urge to drop Luna there and run back home, before Bellatrix sent out the alert. But he resisted, and made his way through the crowded pub to the stairs, pulling Luna up after him.

"Room six," he muttered, stumbling along the hall with Luna clinging to his arm. "Room six…" All the room numbers had blurred, and he couldn't see then very clearly. He stopped in front of the one that looked most like a six, and pushed the door open, setting Luna down on the narrow bed. Her protuberant eyes were unfocussed, and she was laughing softly for no apparent reason. Draco groaned. The alcohol was really going to his head now, and the thought of sleeping on the floor was enough to make him want to vomit. But Luna was already on the bed, and he couldn't very well insist she sleep on the floor.

"Right," he mumbled, collapsing on the bed next to her. "We're going to have to share after all."

)O(

Draco's head was pounding.

He opened his eyes, and immediately wished he hadn't. "Merlin… why are the lights so bright"

"Are you awake, Draco?"

Luna's voice was vaguely slurred, and she sounded like she was in pain. Draco sat up, and then groaned as stars popped in front of his eyes. "Bloody Hell…"

He gripped his head, forcing himself to take long, slow breaths. Finally, the room came into focus.

They were in a small room – room six, Draco remembered, thinking back over the last night. They were at the cheap inn, hiding from the Death Eaters… and they had gone up to room six…

It was all a blur, and Luna's quiet groaning didn't help.

"My head hurts," she said. Draco squinted at her, and saw that she was sitting up on the narrow bed too, clutching her head between her hands.

"You're hungover," Draco told her, wincing. "Told you we shouldn't have had all that to drink last night."

Luna groaned and flopped back down on the bed. "What happened?"

Draco had no idea. He had a vague memory of sinking into the bed with Luna, but the alcohol had completely blurred his mind. He took a bit of comfort in the fact that they were still both wearing their clothes – though their clothes were so disheveled that it didn't mean much.

"Draco?"

"What?"

"Did we…" Luna seemed at a loss for words. She tilted her head and just looked at Draco, whose face was slowly going red.

Finally, he leaned forward and kissed her.

"That," Draco said, "is what you get for waking up like this."


	3. Chapter 3

Draco wasn't quite sure how he felt about sharing a hotel room with Luna. Yes, it was true that they had spent the night in a bed together, and surely that meant they were officially… something (friends? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Fiancées, as Bellatrix had seemed to imply?) but he was still uncomfortable with her. Whether the problem was that she seemed to emanate pure childlike innocence and that threw him off, or that she simply wasn't showing any sort of ordinary reaction to having been broken out of the Manor and brought to a hotel with her former enemy, he didn't know. But something about her made it difficult to relax.

Especially now that he was sharing a room with her.

Especially now that he was sharing a _bed_ with her.

Both of them had slept through most of the day, exhausted and hungover, Luna sprawled all over the narrow bed and Draco keeping himself pressed tightly against the wall. He woke up long before she did, and stared at the ceiling, pondering.

What had possessed him? What insanity was this, that he had thrown away his family for… for…

"Draco?"

He started and turned over. Luna's eyes were open and she was looking at him with her usual mild, serene expression.

"What?" he asked sharply. He was irritated with himself for getting them into such a bad situation, and Luna's naiveté did nothing to sooth his nerves.

"Is something wrong?"

_I'm on the run from the Death Eaters with her? We're both going to die._

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, sort of."

"Oh." Luna lay back, looking up at the ceiling. "Well, I thought that I ought to tell you that I'm very sorry for all this. It really wasn't very wise of you to take me away from Malfoy Manor."

"_What_?" Draco protested. "I _saved you_! How can you say it wasn't a good idea? Are you completely out of your mind?"

_What sort of question is that to ask Looney Lovegood?_

"Your parents are probably in trouble," Luna said matter-of-factly. "And Bellatrix too, I think. It really was a terrible decision on your part."

The fact that just seconds ago Draco had been thinking what a terrible decision saving Luna had been was rendered unimportant. He wasn't about to let her say that he should have let her rot away in the basement.

"No it wasn't. It was a good decision, and I'm glad I made it. I wouldn't have wanted to so anything else."

"But you saving me means that now we're being chased by the Death Eaters."

"It's like you said," Draco told her. "The war's going to be over soon. It has to be. And when it's over, then we won't have to worry about being chased down. We just have to wait." He didn't believe it in the slightest, but he said it to reassure Luna.

"What about your parents, though? Won't Vol- won't You-Know-Who be angry at them?"

"Yes." Draco swallowed. His parents had been growing steadily more distant since Voldemort's return, and he had no delusions. They were already in trouble, and the fact that their son ran off with a prisoner wouldn't be doing anything to endear them to Voldemort. "But," he said, voice trembling a little, "I decided that you were more important."

"Your parents ought to be more important to you than me," Luna told him. "Even Bellatrix ought to be more important to you than me, really. They're family."

"They can take care of themselves," Draco told her, though he was thinking quite differently. "You can't. Not against them, anyway. Which is why I'm here to take care of you."

He kissed her, and felt her smile slightly against his lips.

"I don't really need you to take care of me, you know," she said when he pulled away.

"I know," Draco said. "But I like taking care of you."

)O(

A/N: Augh, I feel so rusty… I need to write more Druna (yes, Ashley, your point is taken ;) ). There shall be more… I feel a Druna-ly mood swing coming my way. Hope you enjoyed it.


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